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This article considers the issue of emancipation by placing it in the long history of ideas. Built in opposition to the Ancien Régime, socialism and to a greater extent liberalism have been confronted with ecological, postmodern, and postcolonial critiques. Modernity claimed to hold the truth about humankind: are other forms possible? But how do we make sure that we do not go back? Or that we only differ to differ? What should be the grounds for a positive overtaking? Is it not truth itself? A.N. Whitehead makes it possible to complexify this idea of truth: it is living and has a processual nature, like an investigation; it has three relatively heterogeneous dimensions (moral, factual, logical).